Take THAT Epistemology!

The whole theory of knowledge thing can be quite the annoyance at times. Thanks to thinkers like Descartes and his meditations, a whole stream of atheism was spawned by instilling philosophy's greatest enemy: doubt. It's not like doubt is a bad thing, it's actually quite good because it helps us to better know what's true and what is not. But it is not helpful if scepticism is taken too far, and we question the possibility of knowledge at all by setting the standards of "authentic" knowledge too high.

And then my "would-be" good friend, G. K. Chesterton (were he born in the 20th and not the 19th Century) says something so ridiculously intelligent, as always.

So to all you out there who are confused about knowledge, or who think that faith is opposed to knowledge... this is what I call, "the trust of knowledge":

"Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of the opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1873, on Campden Hill, Kensington; and baptised according to the formularies of the Church of England in the little church of St. George opposite the large Waterworks Tower that dominated that ridge."

That's from his autobiography. Paul Sanders pointed me to it. But I think it's good for us to think about trust in authority, because we seem to think that we figure everything out all on our lonesome, yet it really comes down to being at least formed under the tutelage of a good master. You just gotta know who is worth trusting.